Prayer makes all the difference

Christian cardiologist Dr. Randolph Byrd had a great interest in knowing if prayer had a “scientifically measurable” impact on healing. He has said, “After much prayer, the idea of what to do came to me.” Over a ten-month period, a computer assigned 393 patients in the coronary care unit at San Francisco General Hospital to one of two groups. The first group was prayed for by home prayer groups. The second group was not remembered in prayer. The home prayer groups were from various Christian denominations. They were given only the first names of the patients and brief descriptions of their diagnoses and conditions. They were prayed for each day. The prayed-for patients differed from those not prayed for in these ways: (1) They were five times less likely to need antibiotics. (2) They were three times less likely to develop fluid in the lungs. (3) None required an artificial airway attached to a ventilator. (4) Fewer died. If the technique being studied had been a new drug or procedure, it would have been heralded as a breakthrough. Even Dr. William Nolan, the author of a book denouncing faith healing, said, “It sounds like this study will stand up to scrutiny…Maybe we doctors ought to be writing on our order sheets, ‘Pray three times a day.’” In the Old Testament, we read: “‘For I will restore health to you and heal you of your wounds,’ says the Lord” (Jeremiah 30:17 NKJV). In the New Testament, James wrote, “The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up…Pray for one another, that you may be healed” (James 5:15-16 NKJV).